Survivors Describe Navy Yard Shooting

People hold their hands to their heads as they are escorted out of the building where a gunman was reported at the Washington Navy Yard, Sept. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

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Terrie Durham and Todd Brundidge were working in a third-floor office at the Navy Yard yesterday when the alarm went off. "Someone came up to my desk and said, 'This is not a drill. Someone had just been shot," Brundidge tells NBC. They left their office, only to see a blue-clad gun-toting man standing about 40 yards down the hallway. Without a word, the man raised his gun and fired at them. "We're lucky he was far enough away he was a bad shot," Durham says.

Not everyone, obviously, was so lucky. One commander says he had just fled the building and was standing in a back alley talking with a worker from the maintenance facility—only to see that worker shot in front of him. More than anything, most of the witness statements convey confusion and panic. Here are some others:

One contractor tells the Washington Post the gunshots sounded "like a table falling on concrete."

A logistics expert says he actually thought that's what they were. "We're always setting up for seminars and things like that. I figured the leg had collapsed and one had fallen." But then he "heard someone yell, 'Call 911!' And I knew it was a shooting."

From witness statements, it appears the shooter was firing from the fourth floor into the first-floor cafeteria. One worker says she was en route to that cafeteria when she heard shots coming from overheard. "We just started running," she says. "I didn't see the shooter at all."

The LA Times has a roundup of social media posts. "All I hear is screaming," one person tweeted from a since-deleted account. In other tweets, the account describes seeing a woman "running getting stepped on. Endless tears from people seeing coworker getting shot at."

It is truly unfortunate that this happened. But having said that, it is very unfortunate that 0bama signed his Executive Order forbidding our troops from carrying firearms while on a military base. This incident could have been easily prevented if someone could have taken out this coward with a couple of well aimed shots. This New York City coward, with a long history of gun violence from Washington to Texas, with a "Less than Honorable" discharge from the US Navy. And how did this New Yorker get on base with his shotgun? With valid credentials granted him by inadequate vetting by the government contractor, Hewlett-Packard. The DC Mayor tried blaming this on 0bama's Sequester requiring budget cuts to all government agencies. WRONGO, dipshit! There were no budget cuts, only reductions in budget increases. MSNBC tried to expand on this accusation, without even realizing how wrong it was. 0bama himself made a speech in while the scenario was ongoing, blaming Republicans and pleading for more gun control, making no comment whatsoever how this was all his own fault. Such is the government we now have. Creating a mass murder scenario, yet trying to blame the innocent Republicans for their own Democrat failures.

TheJman

Sep 17, 2013 4:15 PM CDT

I'm guessing the liberals will love this article seeing as their goal is to disarm all of us and turn us into a herd of helpless victims watching each other get shot.

CasperImproved

Sep 17, 2013 2:05 PM CDT

Seriously? Those were the comments from the potential victims? "A table falling on concrete." sounds like what? Shots sounded like it came from overheard? I suggest the reporters, and their editors look to find better information and details prior to actually putting there detail/information lacking efforts out for the public to read. It would also help if their article contained an iota of information worth disseminating.